Aliens in the Attic (PG)
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This came out in 2009, but I didn't see it until 2024. It was... not bad. Not particularly good, but not bad.
So, the Pearson family goes on vacation, renting a house by a lake. They include parents Stu (Kevin Nealon) and Nina, their 17-year-old daughter Bethany (Ashley Tisdale), their 15-year-old son Tom, and 7-year-old daughter Hannah (Ashley Boettcher). Joining them are Stu's brother Nate (Andy Richter), their mother Rose, who is called Nana (Doris Roberts), and Nate's 14-year-old son Jake, and 12-year-old twins Art and Lee. Also, Bethany's boyfriend Ricky shows up to spend time with her. Tom is in a bit of trouble for getting bad grades, then hacking the school's system to change them. And he's not happy to be on this trip.
When Nana and Nate are watching TV, aliens land on the roof, destroying the satellite dish. Ricky and Tom go up to the roof to find out what's wrong, and encounter the four small CGI aliens. They include commander Skip (voiced by J.K. Simmons), warriors Tazer (Thomas Haden Church) and Razor (Kari Wahlgren), and engineer Sparks (Josh Peck). The aliens shoot a device that implants in Ricky's neck, which allows them to control him with a remote. Before long, the other kids (except for Bethany) learn about the aliens, and they all have to try to fight them off throughout the movie, without letting the adults know what's going on, because the controller weapon only works on adults. At one point they call the town's sheriff (Tim Meadows), who believes it's a prank call. Eventually Bethany learns what's going on, and tries to help her siblings and cousins. Also, Hannah befriends Sparks, who helps against the other aliens. The sheriff eventually shows up to confront the kids about their phone call, and ends up staying for a barbecue and fireworks.
I think saying any more than that would be too spoilery, and kind of pointless. I will say that Ricky was a jerk in numerous ways, the biggest one in my book being that he lied about his age. He's actually in college, so dating Bethany is pretty inappropriate. Also, Jake starts off acting like kind of a jerk toward Tom, but later gets along with him, and the kids all defer to Tom as their leader in their fight against the aliens. There is a happy ending, but the parents never learn what had gone on, so... it's kind of weird that the kids don't seem to be in trouble for all the damage they and the aliens had done to the house. It's surely going to cost their parents a lot of money, but that point just kind of gets dropped, by the end. Anyway, I thought the movie was moderately fun and amusing. Not something I expect to find memorable, but I'm not sorry I watched it.